Redmayne In Talks For “Fantastic Beasts”

He was rumored before, but now negotiations are fully underway with Oscar winning “The Theory Of Everything” star Eddie Redmayne for the lead role in the “Harry Potter” franchise spin-off “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them”.

Redmayne would play Newt Scamander, the author of a textbook used by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry students. Set seventy years before the Potter films, author J.K. Rowling has penned the screenplay herself this time out.

Redmayne would be the anchor for a proposed trilogy of films with the first set to be directed by David Yates and produced by David Heyman.